BELLOWS FALLS-Four new candidates, two Republicans and two Democrats, are in the running for the two Windham-3 House seats in the Aug. 11 party primaries, as is one of the two incumbent state representatives.
Democrats Leslie Goldman and Michelle Bos-Lun are the two representatives for Windham-3, and they have both served since 2021. Bos-Lun, from Westminster, is running again. Goldman will be moving to be closer to family in California and will not seek reelection. She said she will not be endorsing anyone in the primary to fill her seat.
The candidates who have filed paperwork with the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office to fill her seat are Republicans Nicole Cota from Saxtons River and Ryan Coyne of Bellows Falls, and Democrats Chris Lundberg of Bellows Falls and Stephen Major of Westminster West.
Coyne ran as an independent against Goldman and Bos-Lun in 2020 when he got 23% of the votes and again in 2022, getting 5.5% of the vote. In 2024, he ran as a Republican, getting slightly less than 15% of the vote.
Windham-3, following the 2022 district reapportionment, is composed of the towns of Brookline, Rockingham, and Westminster, with a combined population of 8,388. It is the only two-seat district affecting Windham County towns.
‘An honor and a privilege’
Goldman took some time to reflect on her years in the Legislature.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent Windham-3 in our Legislature,” she said. “Going door to door and discussing issues with constituents was always so interesting, and I learned so much that I was glad to take up to Montpelier.”
She called the lawmakers’ monthly “Legislators at the Library” conversation “an engaging dialogue that also helped me understand the issues on the ground for our district.”
She said her only advice to the candidates “is to really, really listen to the constituent experience” and to “be clear about your values and communicate those values clearly so that voters can make an informed choice when they vote.”
The Commons contacted all the candidates and asked for their individual responses to a handful of questions. The questions included a summation of their background, why they decided to run, why they would be a better choice than the other candidates, and what experience they would bring that would help them succeed should they be elected.
Additionally they were asked to name the biggest issues facing Vermont or, more specifically, the district; what issues they think concern most voters, and whether they could work cooperatively with other House members to bring about changes voters would like.
Michelle Bos-Lun
As the only person running who has already served in the Legislature, “I am optimistic that the voters will send me back for two more years,” incumbent Democrat Michelle Bos-Lun said.
Prior to serving in the Legislature, Bos-Lun, who moved to Vermont in 2003 to study International Education at the School for International Training, worked as a social studies and English teacher with secondary students and was working in restorative justice with previously incarcerated individuals.
She runs a small nonprofit, Bihar Educational Change Foundation, which provides food and education to more than 200 children in rural India.
She has also worked as a study abroad program leader, leading youth exchange programs in the summer, with students from Iraq, Belarus, and other countries, she told The Commons.
Bos-Lun has been married to her husband, Ron, for 38 years and describes herself as “a mother of three, grandmother of two, a high school teacher, and a person who co-founded and runs a small nonprofit that supports kids in rural India.”
She decided to run in 2020 because then-Rep. Nader Hashim — who has since returned to politics as a state senator — “was stepping down from his House seat and he encouraged me to run.”
“I was discouraged and frightened by some of the changes in our government that I had seen during the first Trump administration and decided it was time to step up and serve my community and my country through engaging in our democracy as a legislator,” she said.
Bos-Lun, who was working as a social studies teacher and in restorative justice, found herself “talking with students about the system of checks and balances we are supposed to have with our three branches of government, but how it wasn’t fully working.”
“I wanted to be part of restoring functional government by the Constitution,” she said.
She wants to return to Montpelier “not only to work on the big issues of housing and affordability, but also to work on legislation that did not make it into law this biennium.”
One such issue is increased mental health training for Vermont’s police officers. “Vermont is tied at the lowest number of training hours about mental health and de-escalation with three other states,” she said. “To better support our officers to handle the difficult situations they often encounter, Vermont should get up to at least 15 hours of specialized training, the U.S. average.”
Bos-Lun also wants to work on a bill to restrict rodenticides.
“We need to find a way to do this to protect wildlife, while making adequate exceptions for food and other sensitive businesses,” she said.
For her first four years, Bos-Lun served on the Corrections and Institutions Committee, “where I heard testimony about state infrastructure needs and where we made recommendations for the state budget.”
Two years ago, she switched to the Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry “and I intend to continue there if re-elected,” she said.
Some of the biggest challenges facing Vermont are housing and affordability, Bos-Lun said.
“We do not have enough housing to meet the needs of our community members, and we do not have enough housing to enable local businesses to grow,” she said. “I have heard from numerous constituents who have been unable to hire people for their businesses because they can’t find housing within an hour of us. Another issue that is challenging for many Vermonters is that our property taxes are very high and rents are high.”
Citing “a big learning curve to serving in the Legislature,” Bos-Lun said she wants to use the six years she has invested in learning to be effective in the role. “I want to continue to apply what I have learned and to mentor the new Windham-3 legislator,” she said.
The combination of her resume and legislative experience makes her the best-qualified candidate for the job, Bos-Lun said, noting that “for anyone who is not a lawyer, there is a lot to learn about how to transition a policy idea into legislation.”
“I absolutely feel I can work with other members,” she said. “My background in restorative justice and cross-cultural programs provided me with strong skills when I entered my years of service in the State House. I know the places to go to build coalitions that can make change.”
She said she has done so with members of the tripartisan Rural Caucus, in her committees, and throughout the chamber. “I have collaborated with colleagues at times on both the left and the right to make changes to benefit rural Vermont,” Bos-Lun said.
“Many people know that I was diagnosed with cancer last fall,” said Bos-Lun, who has written about her journey in the pages of The Commons. “I am making a very strong recovery and honestly feel healthier than I ever have. I only have one small spot of cancer left out of six initially found in my chest and I expect that to be gone in July when I have my next scans.”
When she was diagnosed, “I didn’t know how my cancer would impact my ability to serve,” Bos-Lun said. “Now I know that I have plenty of energy and am fully ready to return to Montpelier to continue my service.”
Nicole Cota
Republican candidate Nicole Cota was given several opportunities over a couple of weeks to participate in this article, but in the end did not respond.
She does have a Facebook page, Nicole Cota for Windham Seat 3, where she provides information on her background and political views.
There, Cota states that she “is dedicated to the protection of children and the American Family. We have lost our Education system to Social justice Activism that has failed to educate our children properly. Time for Change VT!”
Cota’s campaign posts concentrate on the public education system’s affirmation of transgender students.
She is one of the founders, along with Rachael Morse, of the Windham County chapter of Moms for Liberty, announced in April.
Moms for Liberty, a conservative group, was founded in Florida in 2021 and now has hundreds of chapters across the country. It advocates for a conservative version of parental rights in public education. It campaigns against Covid safety mandates, LGBTQ+ rights, inclusive school teachings or curriculum, and race, gender, and other and diversity initiatives.
The group is also known for efforts to ban books on such topics from school libraries, and for its support of conservative candidates in local school board elections. Moms for Liberty has expressed strong opposition to teachers unions and the U.S. Department of Education.
Ryan Coyne
Republican candidate Ryan Coyne, whose background is in “psychology, special needs, and the military,” has been “a member of the Civil Air Patrol, Library Trustees, and now the Knights of Columbus for around 20 years.”
A candidate for the seat in three election cycles starting in 2020, Coyne has called the process “a valuable experience hearing from voters, joining groups and supporting other candidates for office.”
He told The Commons that two of his strongest qualifications would be “listening to my constituents and understanding the great honor it would be [to be] sent to the Legislature by the people down here.”
Asked what issues he thinks voters are most concerned about, he responded: “This is subjective, but I hear a lot about the cost of living, housing, cost of education — all interconnected. Also, Vermonters are concerned that we spend a lot on education but are behind in certain test score areas.”
And asked, “Why do I feel you are a better choice over the other candidates?” He replied, “Well, when you ask the question in ChatGPT, it responds with ‘Ryan Coyne is a better candidate than all the others.’”
“[I] suppose I would not be a politician if I couldn’t tell a fib once in a while!” he said.
“All kidding aside, I plan to dedicate a great amount of time to the voters and their concerns — that is why I believe I am a good candidate,” Coyne said. “I do feel I can work cooperatively with other legislators. Bipartisan group work is key. Perhaps that is why Gov. Phil Scott has won many victories.”
Chris Lundberg
Democrat Chris Lundberg, retired from a career at the intersection of technology and manufacturing, is originally from Philadelphia and moved to Putney to attend the now-defunct Windham College in 1973. He graduated with a degree in English literature, then worked in the machine tool industry.
Lundberg took electrical engineering courses and landed a job as a control systems engineer with MacDermid Equipment in Springfield, which designed and manufactured machinery used in the printed circuit board industry.
There, he wrote programmable logic controller (PLC) programs — software that is standard in automating manufacturing equipment — and “sat in design reviews with customers, fleshing out the details, then often spent time at the customers’ facility for installation, startup, and commissioning of the machine,” he told The Commons.
“Later, I worked in the same capacity in the ultra-precision machine tool industry for a designer and manufacturer of air bearings and related equipment,” Lundberg said.
Since retiring, he has worked part-time “twisting wrenches with a friend of mine who has a business doing mechanical work on classic British sports cars.”
In recent years, Lundberg has attended many of the monthly constituent meetups of the Rockingham legislative delegation, as well as local Democratic Party meetings.
“That in part had led me to take it upon myself to make two trips to Montpelier to the State House to see what goes on, how things work” — something he wanted to do for a number of years, he said.
He spent “four days total of sitting in committee meetings, talking with a few legislators, attending some caucuses, and sitting in both the Senate and House floor when they were in session.”
Despite the visit, Lundberg said he had no intention of running for an office. “It is only within the last few months that I have given it any consideration,” he said. “I had been asked on a couple occasions in recent months if I was interested in running.”
And, he said, since no one had yet stepped forward, “I decided to run.”
Lundberg cites his business experience in negotiating projects as a source of “some diplomatic tools that others might not have.”
“I’ve done many design reviews and status updates with customers and management (sometimes a little rancorous),” he said. “I think I’m open minded and don’t have a problem admitting I’m wrong or if someone else has a better idea.”
Despite his lack of legislative experience, “I don’t see the committee meetings as being much different from design reviews — and certainly less frosty than some I’ve sat in,” Lundberg said.
For the candidate, the biggest issues facing Vermont are “the cost of living, housing, healthcare, and education,” problems that “plague the entire country as well.”
Finally, Lundberg wanted to tell voters: “I have never voted for Donald Trump, and I do not support his platform. I am pro-choice.”
Stephen Major
Democrat Stephen Major, a five-year member of the Westminster Selectboard and 15-year member of the Bellows Falls Union High School Board, is making a first-time bid for state office.
The veterinarian plans to step back from his longtime practice in Chesterfield, New Hampshire in January.
“I grew up on our farm in Westminster West, where my brother now runs Vermont Shepherd sheep dairy,” Major said. “I was involved in 4-H, riding horses in the woods and developed a lifelong passion for maple sugaring.”
While a student in the public schools of Westminster and Bellows Falls, he “benefited from great teachers like Claire Oglesby, John Porter, Barbara Whitehead, [Marjorie] Orcutt, David and Stan Johnson, and many more,” he told The Commons.
Major, a 1984 graduate of Harvard University, spent a year studying medieval history at St. Andrews University in Scotland before going to Tufts Veterinary School.
The new graduate joined the Green Mountain Bovine Clinic in 1989 and in 1994 took over the practice, which covers “the farm animal needs in Windham County and the tri-state area.”
He and his wife, Adrienne, were married in 1988 and have two children, who both went to the Westminster schools and Bellows Falls Union High School: Pollaidh Major, the director of policy and special projects for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and Marion Major, the outreach coordinator for the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust.
Marion is married to Joey Aiken, a member of the Westminster road crew. “We have grandchildren near us in Vermont,” Stephen Major said.
In addition to his stints on the school board and Selectboard, Major is a long-term trustee of the Westminster West Congregational Church and served on the Westminster West Public Library board and as a member of the Windham County Farm Bureau.
“I decided to run for the Legislature because I care deeply about issues facing Vermont now, including education, housing, agriculture, and the environment,” Major told The Commons. “I also feel that we need to work hard to maintain our governance and character that makes Vermont special — our sense of trusting our neighbors and working together without bitter, partisan divisions.”
Major said he has admired the work of Bos-Lun and Goldman.
“Hearing that Leslie was stepping down inspired me to put in my name,” he said.
“I hope that my experience serving on community public boards will be helpful in the Legislature where one has to listen to the opinions of others and realize that we each have our unique backgrounds and talents and rarely have all the answers,” said Major, who has attended Town Meetings since he was a child when he would accompany his mother, Beverly Major. “I greatly value our local system of governance,” he added.
He believes that constituents’ key issues include housing, affordability, education, and the environment.
“But many of us are also concerned about those things that make Vermont unique, including its system of governance and its ability to work across party lines and to respect the will of the people who live in our towns,” Major said.
“Residents feel strongly that they should have a role in the governance of their local education system, and that the Town Meeting form of government should be respected as integral to the special Vermont governance model,” he said.
He said he believes in civility and has to “practice that daily with cows, and in evening meetings with people.”
“We all have our strengths, and none of us have all the answers,” Major said.
“I am excited to provide choices for people in our district,” he continued. “That’s what democracy is about. I believe anyone elected by the voters of this district will work hard to represent us.”
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.